


Hiding

by Leonawriter



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Time Travel, both Cloud and Genesis are older than they look
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-20 05:24:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14888450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: Cloud's been in the past for a while now, but the first time he's seen Genesis doesn't go quite how he'd imagined it might."What... what are you doing.""Hiding," the redhead said, in an all too familiar way.





	Hiding

Cloud frowned, tilting his head to one side. In all the time since he'd been thrown into the past, he'd wondered what had happened on this end of things. And now, he supposed, the answer was right in front of him, staring him in the face.

Even so, he sighed.

"What... what are you doing."

Genesis rolled his eyes at him from where he was sat. Given what Zack had explained of the situation, he'd half expected to come across the SOLDIER grey-haired, quoting LOVELESS, and sending Copies after him because of what he knew. Or whatever Hojo had done to him in his time that'd followed him, somehow, into the past.

"Hiding," the redhead said, in an all too familiar way. And he _was_ a redhead. It was shorter than he remembered, but still. There was  _no way_ that this could be the Genesis Rhapsodos of this time. "What does it  _look_ like? Shinra thinks I'm dead, and I would actually prefer to keep it that way for a while longer."

Cloud shook his head in disbelief.

"You know, Zack still feels bad about that. He's blaming himself for you as well as-"

Genesis' eyes narrowed. 

"Whatever you're about to say, the answer is no."

"....how long have you even been back here?"

There was a pause. Genesis ran a hand through his hair, an action that lasted longer than it should and betrayed how muscle memory hadn't adapted back to his old - younger - body yet the way Cloud's had.

Could it even be called muscle memory when scientifically, the muscles hadn't even gone through anything they were remembering? By all accounts, it made no sense. But the Lifestream was weird like that, he supposed.

He turned away, raising a hand in mock salute.

"I'm telling Zack, Genesis."

There was a rustle of leaves, rocks, and dirt behind him. He didn't look back.

"Why you  _little-"_

"I won't be telling him what he can do with that, either."

_I keep accidentally acting like you because future-you rubbed off on me just like any of my other friends did, and whether I like it or not, I think I can tell that Sephiroth's trying not to act like he's seeing a ghost every time, the same way I acted around Zack for a while. You're not getting away from this that easily, Genesis._

_..._

"So... what you're telling me is that Genesis is alive."

Zack's voice was almost worryingly flat. Then again, this was  _Genesis_ they were talking about.

Cloud nodded.

"It's a... little more complicated than that, though. I don't know if it makes it easier or not, but he's... not the Genesis you know."

Zack sighed heavily, and fell back onto the bed he'd called dibs on in the rooms they were staying at, Buster Sword thankfully already leaning against the wall some distance away.

"Don't tell me, he's the one  _you_ know."

"He hasn't been here that long," Cloud said, not denying it. "Living in what for us is still... new to him. And he remembers things clearer than I do." He considered something for a moment. "It's probably a good thing Hollander's locked up in Junon, you know."

Zack looked over his way, tilting his head at an awkward angle to do so.

"What, because he's planning on breaking the guy out or something?"

It was hard not to laugh. As it was, an ugly snort still left him, dark humour bleeding through.

"No. More like... if Genesis found Hollander, Hollander would die."

Zack blinked, at that. 

"Oh. Oh... kay. That's, not what I expected, but... argh, it doesn't really make things  _easier."_ A few moments of silence passed, Zack's booted foot hitting against the ground. "Although, saying that... if he's the one you know, then how's he holding up? Didn't you say something about him not having degradation in the future?" He trailed off uncertainly, a frown on his face. "Do you think he'd... come back?"

Cloud was shaking his head before Zack had even finished, even if he wished he didn't have to see his friend's hopes shatter like that.

"Genesis still hates Shinra as much as I do. He was experimented on before he was even  _born_ , Zack. He found his pride as a SOLDIER again," though Cloud wouldn't be the one to explain  _how_ , because that was private, and Genesis had trusted him with that because in a sense, it'd involved a missing piece of his own story, too. "But that doesn't mean he's ever been willing to work for Shinra again. Even under different leadership."

"Can't blame me for  _trying_ , at least."

He couldn't help but shrug awkwardly. 

"Genesis, as far as I can tell... he was burnt badly when he found out.  _How_ he found out. I don't think he ever... really recovered from that. The way I know him now? He's more loyal to  _people_ than anything." A sudden thought made him unable to keep back a laugh. Zack raised an eyebrow over in his direction, apparently bemused. "He's... kind of like a cat. A cat with a wing. He'll pretend he's fine on his own, but what he really wants is attention, no matter how he gets it."

"So you're saying..."

Cloud sighed, not knowing if he was saying too much, and not knowing if nothing would ever change if he  _didn't_ say anything. 

"He's..." In the end, though, the most important thing was making sure Genesis didn't hurt himself - and  _other people -_ while he was figuring out where he fitted in all of this. "Running scared right now, I think."

Zack sat back up abruptly, eyebrows raised.

"No _way._ I mean, I get it with you, I remember how you were - and thinking back, it's a good thing I was going down to see Aerith when I did, and you didn't get sent back in the middle of a mission, because that could've got dicey real quick - but  _Genesis?_ Seriously?"

"Both of us had friends... family, even... we'd made in our future, Zack. We'd come to terms with our losses. And suddenly, that's not there anymore."

Or if it was, it was  _different._  Sometimes not in a bad way, as he was finding out, and even now he found himself torn between hoping desperately that someone else would come back, that he'd walk through the slums and see Tifa looking back at him and understanding, or Cid might pull him aside and ask what the hell was going on, and... knowing that it was unfair, and hoping that none of these people ever had to go through what his own friends had. That this was a second chance for  _them_ , not just him. 

And Genesis too now, he supposed.

For a while, neither of them said anything, letting the consequences and implications sink in.

Then Zack sighed, not quite a groan of frustration, as he put a hand to his head.

"Back... before Modeoheim. Tseng told me, he said that Sephiroth had passed missions over to me because he trusted me. That if anyone could get them back... I failed. Or at least, I thought I did. What you were saying about friends... I really think it'd help if those two could somehow talk things out, y'know?"

A few months ago, Cloud would have refused. Point blank. 

Now, though?

"So long as we can figure out a way to do that without putting Genesis at risk either from getting taken back to Shinra, or Sephiroth being ordered to take him out."

Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea. He didn't trust Sephiroth to bend the rules like Zack trusted him to be able to, or want to, when it came to things like this, but... although he wasn't going to sacrifice a friend for a  _possibility_ , he knew better than any how sometimes you needed a bit of what Tifa would call  _tough love_ , a kick to get you in the right direction, rather than staying in one place and never moving on.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd *like* to say that this is more my own thing than anyone else's, but - yeah, no. I've just come off re-reading Counter Crisis, which is a really great fic. So... there might be some similarities in there somewhere. Please go read that fic, though. It's totally worth it.
> 
> It's also got some elements of Sombre Morrow in there, but that's a given due to that having most of my post-DoC Genesis characterisation.
> 
> Like with Sombre Morrow, some of my VII Minifics from the right time period can be canon to this fic.


End file.
